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Powell's tenacity denies Surrey

IN ADVANCE, this game had stalemate written all over it: Surrey, the team that is learning how to win again, against Warwickshire, the team that does not know how to lose. And as Warwickshire hung on defiantly yesterday afternoon, everything was going to plan.

Last summer, Warwickshire built their title-winning strategy around risk-avoidance rather than speculative accumulation, and while their captain Nick Knight was adding eight runs in two hours either side of lunch, it was easy to see why the tactic proved so successful.

Warwickshire began the day on 18 for one in pursuit of a purely hypothetical 442, which meant their task was to bat out three sessions, collect the points for a draw and tick another day at the office off the list. Against an attack containing four bowlers with Test experience — a fifth, Rikki Clarke, was unable to bowl because of a finger injury — and on